Feeding Time Line For Baby's First Year

Feeding Time Line For Baby's First Year

Feeding a baby is one of the most natural, yet complicated parts of being a new parent. Constant fears often lurk in mama's head: Is my baby hungry? Am I feeding her enough? When do I start spooning out solids? Should she be drinking regular milk yet? Am I feeding her too much?

Parenting is a tough business, but luckily we've compiled this quick little time line of age-appropriate food from the day you bring your newborn home from the hospital until she blows out the candle on her first birthday.

Breast milk or formula should still be offered, but mama may notice that her wee one is not taking as much as solids become more and more integrated into her child's diet. Pureed fruits and vegetables can slowly be introduced — waiting at least three to five days before trying anything new to make sure baby is not allergic. If your child is not a big eater, don't be alarmed. The amounts of fruits and vegetables consumed per day will vary between two tablespoons and two cups depending on the child.

At eight to 12 months many babies are slowly moving from the bottle to table foods. Generally speaking, in addition to three meals a day, a tot should be offered a bottle or the breast three times. Along with a wide variety of pureed or diced fruits, vegetables, and grains, pureed meats are generally introduced around eight months. Some mommies choose to give their little one some cooked egg yolk as well (egg whites are associated with allergies in some kids under one).

After your tot blows out the candle on her first birthday cake, she can also transition onto whole or soymilk. Opposed to a 6-month old, a 12-month old should be getting most of her nutrition from foods and whole or soymilk. Within reason, one-year-olds can eat just about everything adults can, as long as any bits are cut small enough so she can't choke and does not have any known allergies. Also, children around this age are moving constantly so mama may need to fuel her busy tot a snack or two throughout the day to prevent meltdowns (at least those that are hunger related).

Food before one is just for fun!
This means it should be in addition to their feeds not as a replacement. Infants need a high fat diet not one thats packed with almost empty calories from veg. Yes fruit and vegetable purees do contain lots of nice vitamins etc but they dont contain the essential fats.

5 years

Don't mess with evolution.
Humans evolved on breastmilk for the first year, and in most early societies, for several years onwards. It's hard to know how much/often solids were offered, but if you look at other mammals, breastmilk is given for the majority of calories until they reach a certain maturity that equates, I believe, to a toddler. If the mother breastfeeds often enough (on demand - night & day - the way we were designed to) there will, in almost all cases, be enough milk to provide even a super-fast growing baby all that they need, with the exception of vitamin D (we need to get sunlight for that - something else we evolved with).
Easier said than done when you work & have to express using a pump though. Some breasts don't seem to like pumps.
Re Iron. Iron in breastmilk is more easily absorbed, so very little of it is needed. Iron in formula is difficult for them to digest so formula makers need to pack it full of iron (resulting in constipation).

5 years

well, anonymous and momto5, not according to many sources, including my pediatrician. we are to give meals then milk, not the other way around, and this was conveyed at the 9 month appointment. when my son is teething, he refuses bottles because sucking can be too painful. in that situation, yes, he would have starved because he didn't take a bottle for 2 days.
i guess the moral of the story, as it is always with these arguments, is that you talk to your pediatrician(s), you read a book, you talk to your parents, and you roll with the punches your baby throws because after all, no 2 babies are alike.
everyone off the soapbox yet, or shall we continue?

5 years

I agree with Anonymous. The main source of nutrition for the firt year is from breastmilk or formula, this is why its recommended that you offer solids AFTER the baby finishes a breastmilk or formula feed. Solids are just for practice until then, babies can survive on only breastmilk or formula until they are a year old (two of mine refused solids up until they were almost 1 and they did just fine on breastmilk alone). Your baby would not have starved if she hadn't had solids, she would have eaten more formula and gotten all the calories, vitamins, and minerals she needed from it.

Comment 1 says:
"There should not be "three meals a day" offered, it's mostly for the experience and getting used to it, not for nutrition. Obviously some eat more and some eat less, and some have medical conditions such as reflux that requires heavier food. But three snacks a day is more accurate until they're a year."
And my reply is still that my daughter would have starved had she not had nutrition from other foods. She did not have "snacks", she had meals. It wasn't due to reflux or any other medical condition, just the fact that she was a normal baby! Up until the age of 1, babies require approximately 100 calories per kilo of body weight (that's 2.2 pounds).
Dont' forget that an infant's birth weight doubles after about five months and triples by the first birthday, by which time the infant's length increases by half. Adequate and appropriate nutrition is essential during this period, for infants that *do not receive sufficient calories*, vitamins, and minerals will not reach their expected growth.

5 years

Where does comment 1 say ONLY formula? It says majority, which is true. That doesn't mean you don't supplement with solids.

Sorry, Anonymous, but I completely disagree with you. My daughter would have starved if I would have kept her on a formula-only diet for her first year.
I started her on food when she was about 4 months old, simple things like apple, pear, sweet potato and carrot purees.
By the time she was a year old, she was having breakfast (cereal, porridge, toast, even pancakes, plus a dairy source and fruit), then a small bottle mid-morning (which she dropped at 12 months), then lunch (ex: pasta and/or chicken and/or rice, vegetables and another dairy), an afternoon snack (fruit, vegetable or avocado and a dairy, and then dinner. She would then have a bedtime bottle.
She just turned 13 months and has an incredibly varied diet.

5 years

Formula or breastmilk should make up the majority of a child's diet through the first year. There should not be "three meals a day" offered, it's mostly for the experience and getting used to it, not for nutrition. Obviously some eat more and some eat less, and some have medical conditions such as reflux that requires heavier food. But three snacks a day is more accurate until they're a year. Also, iron-fortified isn't necessary in most cases. In fact, it'll likely cause gas and constipation in babies if you just throw it into their diet.